Professor Percy Hintzen (right center), a UC faculty member for 30 years, is applauded after addressing students at Sproul Plaza protesting recent budget cuts and fee hikes to the UC system Wednesday in Berkeley..

Professor Percy Hintzen (right center), a UC faculty member for 30 years, is applauded after addressing students at Sproul Plaza protesting recent budget cuts and fee hikes to the UC system Wednesday in

Bonnie Dalher, a 26-year staff member with the University of California system, joins others in staging a walkout in protest of recent budget cuts on the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph avenues Wednesday in Berkeley.

Bonnie Dalher, a 26-year staff member with the University of California system, joins others in staging a walkout in protest of recent budget cuts on the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph avenues Wednesday in

Graduate student Ianna Owen marches with many others at the University of California staging a walkout in protest of recent budget cuts to the UC system on the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph avenues Wednesday in Berkeley. less

Graduate student Ianna Owen marches with many others at the University of California staging a walkout in protest of recent budget cuts to the UC system on the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph avenues Wednesday ... more

Thousands of UC students marched through downtown Berkeley and the area around campus this afternoon, staging a sit-down protest and blocking traffic as part of a demonstration against cuts to the university budget and proposed fee increases.

The unscheduled march started at the end of a two-hour rally on Sproul Plaza attended by an estimated 5,000 students, professors and other university employees. The protesters, shoulder to shoulder and chanting "Education should be free. No cuts, no fees," marched through campus, passing by UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's office, and then went off campus to Shattuck Avenue, ultimately blocking all lanes of traffic for two block.

Turning up Bancroft Avenue, they marched to Telegraph Avenue, where they staged a sit-in at the entrance to the campus. By 3:30 p.m., the crowd had thinned to a few hundred,

Earlier, Dan Mogulof, a Cal spokesman said the crowd at the Sproul Plaza rally was the largest in recent memory.

Shannon Steen, of Save UC, a group formed two weeks ago to protest cuts at the statewide system, called the turnout extraordinary.

"This far exceeds anything we thought would happen," she said. "This is an enormous success for the solidarity of the campus."

The protests are part of a systemwide walkout, which caused many classes to be canceled at UC and other campuses.

The walkout is intended to reflect widespread frustration and anger as UC lays off hundreds of workers, imposes unpaid furloughs on nonunion employees and reduces courses to close a budget gap of more than $750 million - the result of dramatically reduced funding from the cash-poor state and higher operating costs.

UC's governing board of regents is also expected to raise next year's tuition to $10,302, not including housing. The 45 percent increase over last year's tuition of $7,126 is also intended to close the university's budget gap, but many students say it will put a UC education out of their reach.

At the Telegraph Avenue entrance to the campus late this morning, a few hundred students, faculty and staff members picketed as more protesters streamed in, arriving for the noon rally at Sproul Plaza. By early afternoon, according to UC officials, police had estimated that 5,000 people were at the rally.

"I'm just really trying to get the word out to younger students that it's your right to walk out," she said. "I feel it's important to walk out because in the U.S. you are supposed to have the freedom to get an education, but not everybody does."

Faculty urged the walkout to protest the UC decision to prohibit furloughs on teaching days, but that led to a broader effort by students, staff and professors to focus on deeper problems facing the university.

Key among their concerns is that the deep cuts will degrade the quality of UC and damage its role as an economic engine in California that produces top graduates doing the most innovative work in their fields.

Not all students, however, were skipping class. Sophomore Charlie Smith sat on a cement wall near Sather Gate at about 10 a.m., waiting for his 11 a.m. political science class to start.

He said he didn't know much about the protest.

"I thought I had one class (at 9 a.m.). I showed up but no one was there," he said.

Smith took the day of activism in stride.

"It seems like there's always something going on," he said.

Cal officials said it was difficult to know how many classes were canceled today or how many students honored the strike.

More than 1,000 professors and associate professors from all 10 campuses signed a petition urging the walkout and demanding that UC not cut the pay of anyone earning less than $40,000.

The protests also coincide with a one-day strike by the union representing about 12,000 researchers, computer technicians, lab assistants and other non-faculty employees who have been working without a contract for 18 months.

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